Rift widens over tobacco advertising compromise

Date: 09/05/1996

By Fiona McHugh

EU HEALTH ministers will next week turn their attention yet again to the thorny issue of whether or not to impose a Union-wide ban on tobacco advertising.

But with the gap between member states widening rather than narrowing, the meeting is unlikely to produce anything more than some billows of hot air.

Italy, hoping to settle one of the bloc's longest-running disputes during its tenure of the EU presidency, has suggested a partial ban on tobacco advertising which would, if adopted by ministers and MEPs, outlaw tobacco publicity on radio and in magazines or newspapers directed at under-18s.

Sponsorship of major sporting events by cigarette manufacturers and billboard advertising would be allowed to continue.

But, far from fostering a spirit of reconciliation, Rome's compromise plan seems only to have exacerbated existing differences of opinion between member states.

Those countries in favour of an all-out prohibition heap criticism on Italy's efforts to find a solution to the problem, saying they would rather see negotiations on the directive stretch into yet another presidency than accept such a watered-down ban.

“We are ready to negotiate, but not to abandon our position altogether,” said a diplomat from Finland, where a blanket ban already exists.

Liberal countries are equally dismissive of the proposal, but for the opposite reason. “As far as the UK is concerned, this proposal goes too far. The voluntary arrangement which we have in place works perfectly well and we have no desire to change it,” says a British diplomat.

“There is no evidence whatsoever for the claim being made by some member states that tobacco advertising encourages young people to smoke. The information we have suggests rather that it encourages smokers to switch brands.”

Tobacco advertising on television is already banned in the EU under the 1989 Television Without Frontiers Directive. Portugal, Italy, Finland and France have outlawed tobacco advertising completely and other governments have imposed a number of restrictions.

Anxious not to allow this mosaic of rules to break up the single market, the European Commission is pressing for a total ban on advertising except at points of sale, such as tobacco shops.

For seven years, health ministers have traded arguments on this issue, and for seven years they have been forced to agree to disagree, with critics of the proposed measure successfully forming and maintaining a blocking minority against the plan.

The Danes and the Germans are opposed to the proposed measure because they think it restricts citizens' right to choose whether or not to smoke. The British and the Dutch, on the other hand, are against it because both have extensive tobacco interests.

Battling against the odds, Social Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn continues to argue for the measure, maintaining it is needed to protect the health of European citizens. Some 1,500 people die daily in the EU from tobacco-related illnesses.

According to the Commission, new smokers tend to remain loyal to their start-up brand for 21 years on average. Given that statistic, it believes tobacco companies are as intent on recruiting new smokers as on trying to poach addicts from rival firms.

But with smokers in the EU paying an estimated 50 billion ecu in cigarette tax each year, many governments are reluctant to put health considerations before financial ones.

A recent Dutch study by the Nederlands Economisch Instituut indicated that a total advertising ban would cost Dutch tobacco companies approximately 79 million ecu in lost business and result in the loss of some 650 jobs.

The tobacco industry, which spent nearly 267 million ecu on advertising across the Union last year, argues that a ban would restrict individuals' freedom of choice.

These all-too familiar arguments will be trotted out at this month's meeting, probably to little avail.

Looking ahead to Ireland's turn at the helm of the EU, many diplomats seem to be placing great store by Dublin's chances of success.

But, given the proposal's track record, the Irish will need a dab of that luck they are famed for, as well as yet another compromise measure, in order to break one of the Union's most established deadlocks.